Biographies
of the
Attorneys General of Connecticut
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- Charles Phelps (1899-1903)
- William A. King (1903-1907)
- Marcus H. Holcomb (1907-1910)
- John H. Light (1910-1915)
- George E. Hinman (1915-1919)
- Frank E. Healy (1919-1927)
- Benjamin W. Alling (1927-1931)
- Warren B. Burrows (1931-1935)
- Edward J. Daly (1935-1937)
- Charles J. McLaughlin (1937-1938)
- Dennis P. O'Connor (1938-1939)
- Francis A. Pallotti (1939-1945)
- William L. Hadden (1945-1951)
- George C. Conway (1951-1953)
- William L. Beers (1953-1955)
- John J. Bracken (1955-1959)
- Albert L. Coles (1959-1963)
- Harold M. Mulvey (1963-1967)
- Robert K. Killian (1967-1975)
- Carl R. Ajello (1975-1983)
- Joseph I. Lieberman (1983-1989)
- Clarine Nardi Riddle (1989-1991)
- Richard Blumenthal (1991-2010)
- George Jepsen (2011-2019)
Charles Phelps
Charles Phelps, a Republican from Vernon, was Connecticut's first Attorney General. He was born in East Hartford, Connecticut on August 10, 1852. As a boy, Charles Phelps attended the private school of Sarah Woodhouse at Wethersfield, and later Wethersfield Academy. He went to East Greenwich Seminary, where he prepared for college and entered Wesleyan University in 1871. He finished his college course in 1875 and entered the law office of Judge B. H. Bill of Rockville, who was then state's attorney for Tolland County.
Mr. Phelps was admitted into the bar in October 1877, and later, Wesleyan University conferred upon him the degree of master of arts. He first opened an office in Tolland, and after one year went to Rockville.
He was for many years a member of the State Board of Examiners of applicants for admission to the bar; he was county coroner from the time of the creation of that office in 1883 until his appointment as state's attorney 21 years later. He served as corporation counsel for the City of Rockville from 1890 to 1892, and as prosecuting attorney for the city from 1890 to 1897, and as state's attorney for Tolland County from 1904 to 1915.
He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the town of Vernon in 1885, and in 1893 he was elected to State Senate from the 23rd District. He was elected Secretary of State, and filled that office from 1897 until 1899, when he was elected to the office of Attorney General, the first to fill that office for the State, remaining in that office for four years.
In 1902 he was elected a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention. He was also a member of the commission appointed by the Legislature to study the question of the establishment of a Public Utilities Commission to take the place of the then existing Railroad Commission.
He was a member of the American Bar Association and the Connecticut Bar Association, having served as president of the latter association from 1914 to 1916. He was also president of the Tolland County Bar Association, and following his retirement from active practice, the Tolland County Bar Association Library received the gift of many valuable volumes.
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William A. King
Born in 1855 in Willimantic, Connecticut, William A. King was one of the most celebrated criminal lawyers during his lifetime. Mr. King, a Republican from Windham, practiced law in Willimantic and was later joined by his son, John H. King, after passing his Connecticut Bar examination. His son went on to become chief justice of the State Supreme Court of Errors.
William A. King was a commissioner with The General Statutes of Connecticut Revision Committee of 1902 and went on to become Attorney General of Connecticut in 1903. Mr. King was the second Attorney General and served for one full term of four years.
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Marcus H. Holcomb
Marcus H. Holcomb was born in New Hartford, Connecticut on November 28, 1884. He attended New Hartford schools and Wesleyan Seminary in Wilbraham, Massachusetts.
Holcomb, a Republican from Southington, taught school while he studied law in the office of Jared B. Foster of New Hartford. In 1871, he was admitted to the bar and began a practice in Southington. After a move to Hartford in 1893, he formed an association with Noble E. Pierce and continued in his law practice until 1910, while also pursuing a long and active life of political service.
From 1873 to 1910, Holcomb was a Judge of the Probate Court of the Southington District. He was also First Judge of the Borough Court of Southington during 1905-1909, and Treasurer of Hartford County from 1893 to 1908. He became a member of the State Senate in 1893, and served one term. In 1902, he was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. After serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1905-1906, he was Attorney General in 1906-1907, and Judge of the State Superior Court from 1906-1915.
Holcomb was a Democrat until 1888, when his feelings about the tariff issue caused him to change parties and become a Republican. He ran for the governorship as a Republican in 1914, and won against Democratic opponent, Lyman Tingler. He was the fifty-first governor of Connecticut. He was reelected in 1916, and again in 1918, becoming the State's first three-term Governor since adoption of the biennial term. He served for almost the entire World War I period. During his administration, the State energetically contributed to the war effort. Holcomb prepared by creating a complete census of men and materials, appointing a State Council of Defense and a Food Supply Council, and creating a Home Guard, which at the end of 1917 had 20,000 men, 10,000 of whom were armed, equipped, and trained.
His administration was also marked by acts which limited the hours of labor for women in industry, created a teacher's retirement system, and provided health insurance and old age pensions. The Legislature failed to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment on prohibition and the Nineteenth Amendment on women's suffrage during his years of leadership.
In 1921, at the close of his third term, Holcomb left the office of the Governor and returned to his law practice and remained active in many organizations.
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John H. Light
Mr. Light was born in Carmel, N.Y. and at an early age was taken by his parents to New Canaan, Connecticut. His first job was in a tannery where he earned funds to finance the beginning of his education.
He graduated from Chamberlain Institute and Female College in New York State, one of the first co-educational institutions in the country. He taught school while taking law intruction and passed his Connecticut Bar examinations in 1883. He began his law practice in South Norwalk in that year.
Mr. Light, a Republican from Norwalk, held many public offices in Norwalk, and was a Representative in the General Assembly for two terms in 1890 and 1901. He was appointed Attorney General on September 15, 1910 by Governor Weeks, to fill the unexpired term of Marcus H. Holcumb. In November of that year he was elected for a full term of four years as the Attorney General.
A student of the classics, Mr. Light maintained a library at his home which was regarded as one of the finest private libraries in the state.
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George E. Hinnman
George E. Hinnman, a Republican from Windham, was born in Willimantic, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1899. He served many posts in the Connecticut General Assembly from 1899 until he was elected Attorney General of Connecticut in 1915. He served on the State Superior Court bench from 1919 to 1926, when he was named an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court of Errors. Hinnman served in that capacity until 1940, when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. He served from then until his death in 1961 as a state referee.
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Frank E. Healy
Frank E. Healy served as Attorney General of Connecticut for two four-year terms (1919-1927). He had been a member of the Republican State Committee for forty-five years representing the Seventh Senatorial District. He later became the dean of the Republican party leaders in the State.
Healy, a Republican from Windsor Locks, was a formidable figure in State conventions; he often opposed the organization choices of the late Republican leader, J. Henry Roraback. He served as clerk of the House in 1889, clerk of the Senate in 1901, and clerk of the Constitutional Convention of 1902. Healy was the State Tax Commissioner in 1907, Republican Majority Leader of the House in 1913 and Speaker of the House in 1915 and 1917.
After his two terms as State Attorney General, he was named coroner of Hartford County by the judges of the Supreme and Superior Court.
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Benjamin W. Alling
Benjamin W. Alling, a Republican from New Britain, was elected the seventh Attorney General of Connecticut, serving from 1927 to 1931. He was a graduate of New Britain High School and received a bacehlor's degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Harvard University. Before becoming attorney general, he served as a Deputy Judge and Judge of the New Britain City Court. He also served two terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives. As attorney general, he won a landmark ruling from the United States Supreme Court in a case regarding inheritance taxes for people with property in more than one state.
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Warren B. Burrows
Warren Burrow, a Republican from Groton, was elected Attorney General in 1930 and served one four-year term after resigning the Federal Court judgeship to which President Coolidge appointed him in 1928.
Mr. Burrows graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, with an L.L.B. degree, in 1904, and first became a public official in 1906. After his admittance to the bar of Connecticut in 1905, he entered the practice of law in New London and three years later was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the Town Court of Groton which office he held for over twenty years.
Mr. Burrows was elected tothe legislature in 1925 and served on the judiciary committee. In 1927 he represented the Eighteenth senatorial district in the senate. At the close of legislature in 1927, Governor Trumbell appointed him to the commission to revise the statues. He was appointed to the federal district court by President Coolidge in February 1928. He resigned from this position in October 1930 in order to accept the Republican nomination for Attorney General of Connecticut to which he was elected.
His last public office was chairman of the Groton Selective Service Board during World War II.
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Edward J. Daly
Edward J. Daly, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1892. He attended South School (now called Chauncery Harris School), Hartford Public High School, and Cornell University. He was admitted to the practice of law in the State of Connecticut in 1915.
Daly was enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps of the United States Army in 1917, during the World War I, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant.
After discharge from the Army, he resumed the practice of law in 1919. Not long thereafter he was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut. He served as such for a year and resigned in order to give full time to the private practice of law.
Daly, a Democrat, was a member of the Grievance Committee for Hartford County for several years. He served as vice-president of the American Bar Association from 1935-1936. He was elected Attorney General of Connecticut in 1934 and served in that office until 1937 when he was elected Judge of the Superior Court by the Governor, Wilbur L. Cross, and the 1937 General Assembly. He served as an Associate Justice and later Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1953 to 1959 and as one of three United States presiding judges at the Nuremberg Trials.
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Charles J. McLaughlin
Charles J. McLaughlin, from West Hartford, was a graduate of Georgetown University and Yale Law School. McLaughlin, a Democrat, was appointed State Attorney General in 1937 by Governor Wilbur L. Cross after Daly was appointed Judge of the Superior Court in 1937 and had to resign as Attorney General. In 1938, Governor Wilbur Cross appointed McLaughlin Tax Commissioner and he resigned from his position as Attorney General. He went on to become Judge of the Superior Court in 1942
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Dennis P. O'Connor
Dennis P. O'Connor, from Hartford, was appointed Attorney General of Connecticut by Governor Wilbur Cross in 1938 to fill the unexpired term of Charles J. McLaughlin. O'Connor, a Democrat, was elected Mayor of Hartford by the City Council in 1943 to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas J. Spellacy. O'Connor was named State Tax Commissioner by Governor Chester Bowles and headed the Office of Price Stabilization in Hartford during the Korean war.
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Francis A. Pallotti
Francis A. Pallotti was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was educated at the Brown School in Hartford, the Hartford Public High School, and graduated from Holy Cross College with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1908. In the fall of 1908 he entered Yale Law School from which he was graduated, cum laude, in 1911.
In June, 1911, he was admitted to the practice of law in Connecticut and was actively engaged in the legal profession for many years.
He was a member of the Board of Street Commissioners of Hartford for six years from 1911 to 1917 and was vice-president of the Board for three years.
Pallotti, a Republican, was appointed Judge of the Hartford City Police Court in 1917, which he held for four years. He was Secretary of State for three terms, from 1923 until 1929.
Francis A. Pallotti was elected Attorney General in 1939 and was reelected in 1942. He was a trustee of St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church of Hartford; a Director of the Dime Savings Bank, Hartford; a Director of St. Francis Hospital, Hartford, and Chairman of the Disabled Veterans' Camp Fund.
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William L. Hadden
William L. Hadden was born in Elmira, New York in 1896. About one year later, he relocated to New Haven, and in 1909 the Hadden family moved to West Haven. He graduated from the public schools of New Haven, West Haven High School and the Fordham University School of Law.
He was admitted to the Connecticut State Bar in 1917 and after his discharge from military service in 1918, practiced law in association with David E. FitzGerald until 1933. He went on to become a member of the firm of Campner, Pouzzner & Hadden, and Pouzzner, Hadden, Kopkin & Hadden, with offices in New Haven.
Mr. Hadden, a Republican from West Haven, acted as Assistant Clerk of the Town Court of West Haven from 1919 to 1921, was Prosecuting Attorney from 1923 to 1927, Judge from 1927 to 1937. From 1939 to 1943 he was Prosecuting Attorney of that court. He represented his town at the General Assembly during the 1939 and 1941 sessions, in the latter session acting as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and Majority Leader. Mr. Hadden was the first chairman of the West Haven Board of Zoning Appeals, serving in that capacity for six years and from 1931 to 1933; in 1943 he began his service as Town Counsel. During 1943 and 1944, Mr. Hadden was Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut. On June 15, 1945, he was appointed Attorney General, by Governor Baldwin, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Francis A. Pallotti, who resigned to become a Judge of the Superior Court. He was elected Attorney General for a term of four years in 1946.
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George C. Conway
George C. Conway was born in Guilford, Connecticut in 1900. He attended the public schools of Guilford and subsequently graduated from Wesleyan University in 1923 with a BS Degree and from Yale Law School in 1929 with an LL.B. Degree. He was a partner in the law firm of Conway and Whitehead in New Haven.
Conway, a Republican, was a judge of the Guilford Town Court, and was also president of the Municipal Court Judges Assembly. He was elected judge of probate in Guilford in 1935 and reelected for seven terms.
A four-time representative of the Connecticut General Assembly, 1943-1949, he had been a member of the Judiciary, Labor and Constitutional Amendments Committees and served the latter two terms as Majority Leader of the House of Representatives.
Conway was elected Attorney General of Connecticut in 1951, but resigned to become judge of the Superior Court in 1953.
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William L. Beers
William L. Beers was born in Guilford, Connecticut in 1904. He attended the public schools of Guilford and subsequently graduated from Trinity College with a B.A. and from Yale Law School with an LL.B.
Beers, a Republican from New Haven, was admitted into the Connecticut State Bar in 1927 and practiced law with his father in New Haven until his father's death in 1947. Carrying on the firm name of Beers and Beers, he became associated with John N. Reynolds in New Haven.
He served one term as Alderman from the fifteenth ward in New Haven and for five years as Assistant Corporation Counsel of New Haven.
In 1951 he was appointed Deputy by Attorney General George C. Conway and upon Conway's elevation to the bench of the Superior Court in 1953, Beers was appointed by Governor John Lodge to fill the unexpired balance of the term.
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John J. Bracken
John J. Bracken was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1908. He attended St. Peter's Parochial School, the Hartford Public High School, and graduated from Georgetown University Law School.
Bracken, a Republican, was admitted to the Connecticut State Bar in 1932 and practiced law in Hartford except for three years from 1942 to 1945 when he was engaged in wartime activities as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Active in civic affairs and the Republican Party all his adult life, he held a number of municipal offices. He was prosecuting attorney of the Hartford Police Court in 1941-1942, and again in 1946-1947. He served as judge of the Hartford City and Police Court from 1947 to 1949 and again from 1953 until his resignation in July, 1954 upon being nominated for the office of the Attorney General. In 1940 he served as legal adviser for the Charter Revision Commission of Hartford and he was assistant clerk of the Senate during the 1953 Session of the General Assembly. Bracken also served as chairman of Hartford Local Draft Board No. 3..
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Albert L. Coles
Albert L. Coles was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1909. He attended local Bridgeport schools, graduated from Yale University with a BA. in 1931 and Yale Law School with an LL.B. in 1933.
Coles was admitted into the Connecticut State Bar in 1933, and admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. He was prosecutor for the City Court of Bridgeport from 1941-1943, Judge for the City Court of Bridgeport from 1945-1947, and again from 1949-1951.
Coles, a Democrat, served five sessions of the Connecticut General Assembly as Senator from the 22nd District from 1939-1947. He was Majority Leader of the Senate in 1941. He was the Democratic Town Chairman of Bridgeport from 1952-1955.
In 1959, Albert L. Coles was elected into the office of the Attorney General but resigned that position to become judge of the Superior Court in 1963.
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Harold M. Mulvey
Harold M. Mulvey was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1914. He attended local New Haven schools, graduated from Fordham University with a BA. in 1938, and from Fordham University Law School with an LL.B. in 1941.
Mulvey was admitted into the New York State Bar in 1942 and into the Connecticut State Bar in 1949. He was admitted into practice in the United States District Court for Southern District of New York, and the United States District Court for Connecticut. He was appointed Assistant Corporation Counsel in New Haven in 1961-1963 and was a member of the Connecticut Marketing Authority from 1955-1961.
In 1963 Mulvey, a Democrat, was appointed by the Governor, to fill the unexpired term of Albert L. Coles. Mulvey resigned to become judge of the Superior Court in 1967, but would only begin his term as judge in 1968.
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Robert K. Killian
Robert K. Killian was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1919. He attended local Hartford Schools, graduated from Union College with a BA. in 1942, and from University of Connecticut Law School with an LL.B. in 1948.
Killian was admitted into the Connecticut State Bar in 1948 and was appointed Assistant Corporation Counsel in Hartford in 1951-1954.
In 1967, Robert K. Killian, a Democrat, was appointed by the Governor to fill the unexpired term of Harold M. Mulvey. Killian was elected for a full term in 1970. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1974 for one term.
Killian was a First Lieutenant in the US. Army Infantry from 1942-1946; World War II, Pacific Theater, won Four Battle Stars and the Purple Heart -- Okinawa.
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Carl R. Ajello
Carl R. Ajello was born in Ansonia, Connecticut in 1932. He attended Ansonia schools and was graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BS. in 1953, and from New York University, School of Law, with an LL.B. and a J.D.S. in 1956. He was admitted into the Connecticut State Bar in 1956.
He served with the US. Army, Judge Advocate General's Corps from 1957-1960, entering as a Lieutenant and discharged with the rank of Captain. He was discharged from the US. Army Reserves in 1968.
Ajello, a Democrat, was elected Justice of the Peace, City of Ansonia, for the 1960-1962 term and served as Corporation Counsel, City of Ansonia, from 1965 through 1968. Member of the Connecticut General Assembly since 1963; served as Assistant House Majority Leader in the 1967 session, House Majority Leader in the 1969 and 1971-1972 sessions; House Minority Leader in the 1973-1974 sessions.
A partner in the law firm of Ajello, Hoyle and Sponheimer with offices in Ansonia, he was presented the Distinguished Service Award of the Ansonia Jaycees in 1965 and is listed in "Who's Who in America."
He was elected into the office of Attorney General of Connecticut in 1975 and served for two full terms until 1983.
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Joseph I. Lieberman
Joseph I. Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1942 and attended public schools there. He received his bachelors degree from Yale University in 1964 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1967.
Mr. Lieberman, a Democrat from New Haven, was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970 at the age of 27, and served there for ten years - the last six as Majority Leader. He was selected one of the state's Top Ten Legislators in Connecticut magazine in each of his last three terms.
In 1981, Mr. Lieberman announced his candidacy for the office of Attorney General. He won the Democratic nomination in July 1982. On January 5, 1983, Joseph I. Lieberman became Connecticut's 21st Attorney General. He was Connecticut's first full time Attorney General. On November 4, 1986, he was elected to a second term. He resigned from his position as Attorney General in 1989 when he was elected to the United States Senate.
Mr. Lieberman was a recipient of the Helen M. Loy Memorial Freedom of Information Award, and the Outstanding Public Service Award of the Connecticut Association for Retarded Citizens. He was awarded honorary membership in Concerned Citizens for the Environment and Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his work fighting environmental pollution and drunk driving.
Mr. Lieberman is the author of four books: The Power Broker (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1966), a biography of the late Democratic party chairman, John M. Bailey; The Scorpion and the Trantula (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970), a study of early efforts to control nuclear proliferation; The Legacy (Spoonwood Press, 1981), a history of Connecticut politics from 1930-1980; and Child Support in America (Yale University Press, 1986).
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Clarine Nardi Riddle
Clarine Nardi Riddle was born in Clinton, Indiana in 1949. She received a bachelors degree and teaching certificate from Indiana University (Bloomington) in 1971, where she majored in mathematics (honors program), and a law degree from Indiana University Law School in 1974.
In 1979, Ms. Riddle served as Assistant Counsel to the Senate Majority leadership of the Connecticut General Assembly. In 1980, she was appointed by Mayor Biagio DiLieto to be Deputy Corporation Counsel for the City of New Haven, Connecticut, and served there for three years.
From 1983-1985, she was Counsel to Attorney General Joseph I. Lieberman, and in that capacity represented the Attorney General's Office before the Connecticut General Assembly and handled numerous special projects, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force. She also served as a member of Governor William O'Neill's Child Support Commission, the Governor's Missing Children Commission, and the Connecticut Child Support Guidelines Commission.
In 1986 Riddle, a Democrat, was appointed Deputy Attorney General for the State of Connecticut. She was appointed by Chief Justice Ellen Peters to serve on the Chief Justice's Task Force on Gender, Justice and the Courts. She was also appointed to the Governor's Task Force on Justice for Abused Children.
On December 22, 1988, Governor William O'Neill announced that he had selected her to become Acting Attorney General, filling the unexpired term of Attorney General Lieberman who was elected to the United States Senate. She was sworn in as Connecticut's 22nd Attorney General on October 27, 1989. Ms. Riddle was the first, and to this date the only, female Attorney General in the State of Connecticut.
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Richard Blumenthal
Richard Blumenthal was first elected to serve as Connecticut's 23rd Attorney General in 1990, re-elected in 1994, and then re-elected to an unprecedented fifth term in 2006. In 2010, Blumenthal was elected to serve as a United States Senator for the state of Connecticut. During his terms as Attorney General, Blumenthal was a tireless advocate for consumers, the environment, our children and the civil rights of Connecticut's citizens.
Blumenthal's leadership and innovative use of his office have helped to stop the hostile takeover of New Britain-based Stanley Works, a major Connecticut employer, drastically reduce unjustified utility rate increases, stop chronic polluters from endangering people's health, and protect consumers from misuse of their charitable donations. Blumenthal personally argued in court on critical issues affecting Connecticut's citizens, including defending the State's ban on assault weapons and its welfare-reform law.
He also saved taxpayers money through aggressive litigation, forced companies violating consumers' rights to reimburse them, enforced measures to reduce health insurance fraud through the creation of a health care fraud unit, and worked to preserve access to quality health care and protect the rights of senior citizens.
As Attorney General, Blumenthal was a leader in the fight against the tobacco industry, initiating legal action, legislation and other measures to combat its deceptive marketing -- aimed particularly at children -- and Big Tobacco's campaign to suppress the truth about the disease and addiction it causes.
He was at the forefront of seeking a comprehensive national measure through the courts and Congress to reduce teen tobacco use and reimburse taxpayers for tobacco-caused medical costs.
He further sought to protect children by aggressively enforcing abuse and neglect protections, and pursuing parents who owe child support payments -- in many cases, tens of thousands of dollars. Blumenthal's "Wanted" Posters, coupled with arrest sweeps of delinquent debtors and other initiatives, have helped to apprehend hundreds of deadbeat parents.
Before being elected Attorney General, Blumenthal was a member of the Connecticut State Senate from 1987 to 1990, and the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1984 to 1987.
Blumenthal also served as United States Attorney for Connecticut from 1977 to 1981. His leadership as the chief federal prosecutor in our State resulted in the successful prosecution of many major cases against drug traffickers, organized crime, white collar criminals, civil rights violators, consumer frauds and environmental polluters.
Blumenthal also served as administrative assistant to United States Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff, as aide to United States Senator Daniel P. Moynihan when Moynihan was Assistant to the President of the United States, and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. From 1981 to 1986, he was a volunteer counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Blumenthal graduated with honors from Harvard College (Phi Beta Kappa; Magna Cum Laude) and Yale Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Journal. He also served as a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps Reserves.
Blumenthal lives in Greenwich with his wife, Cynthia, and their four children.
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George Jepsen
George Christian Jepsen, Connecticut's 24th Attorney General, was first elected in 2010 and served two, four-year terms from 2011 to 2019; but he chose not to seek a third term in 2018.
Jepsen held a progression of leadership positions in the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), culminating as president in 2016-17. During his presidency, he directed a national summit on challenges in the health care marketplace. He also led efforts to direct settlement dollars into endowments at NAAG to fund future bipartisan investigations and to promote staff training in state attorneys general offices nationwide. In 2017, his fellow attorneys general recognized him with the association’s highest honor, the Kelley-Wyman Award, given annually to the attorney general who has done the most to achieve NAAG objectives, including enhancing the performance of attorneys general and their staffs to respond effectively to emerging state and federal issues.
Jepsen encouraged a collaborative, bipartisan approach by state attorneys general to address issues of mutual concern. When he left office in Connecticut in January, 2019, Jepsen was serving in a leadership role on several national bipartisan investigations including: price-fixing in the generic drug industry; opioid abuse; the Equifax data breach and abusive consumer account practices by Wells Fargo.
In 2012, Jepsen helped to negotiate a $26 billion federal-state settlement -- the largest in history at that time -- with the nation's five largest banks over mortgage foreclosure abuses. Connecticut played a leadership role in the e-book pricing investigation that produced settlements with five publishing companies, $166 million in consumer refunds and a $450 million judgment against Apple, Inc. Connecticut also led an intensive, 20-state investigation into two financial rating agencies for allegedly misrepresenting their analyses of structured securities, resulting in a $1.375 billion federal-state settlement with Standard & Poor's in 2015 and a $863 million settlement with Moody's in 2016. In 2016, he served in a leadership capacity investigating Volkswagen for emissions standards fraud, resulting in a $10.5 billion settlement for consumers and states.
Jepsen vigorously pursued antitrust, environmental, health care, and consumer protection issues as attorney general. He also made structural changes to the office to better protect the state’s and the public interest, consolidating staff into an Antitrust and Government Program Fraud department that led a national bipartisan investigation into price fixing in the generic drug industry. The department focused on reducing healthcare costs through greater transparency and competition and by deterring healthcare fraud. Jepsen also created a privacy task force, later elevated to department status as the Privacy & Data Security Department, the first among state attorneys general offices. The department led nationwide multistate investigations into the nation’s largest data breaches, resulting in sizeable settlements and better industry practices to protect collected data.
Jepsen believed there was no greater calling in life than public service, and he committed his personal, political and legal skills to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives. His approach as attorney general was to "create a culture where the focus was enforcing the law fairly and without fanfare, because I strongly believe the rule of law is absolutely fundamental to the kind of civil society we all want to live in. The law, in its purest form, is a societal mechanism for achieving justice. As officers of the court, we as lawyers and judges have a duty to use the law for this purpose, for the good of the people. "
Jepsen was born on Nov. 23, 1954 to Chuck and Rita Jepsen, the second of three children, in Hattiesburg, Miss., the small town where his mother grew up. The family moved to Greenwich in 1955 where Jepsen attended public schools and graduated from Greenwich High School in 1972. Jepsen went on to Dartmouth College, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree with high distinction in government. As an undergraduate, he studied Chinese and completed foreign study in France and Taiwan. In 1982, Jepsen earned his J.D. degree, cum laude, from Harvard Law School and simultaneously earned a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He served as a teaching fellow in the college's political science department for Richard Neustadt for The American Presidency and for former Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox in U.S. Constitutional Law.
Jepsen began his legal career in 1982 as general counsel to Carpenters Local 210 and later worked in private practice for more than 26 years with several prominent Connecticut law firms. Jepsen was first elected to the Connecticut General Assembly in 1987. He served four years as state representative for Stamford's 148th District and 12 years as state senator for the 27th District, representing Stamford and Darien. He served as Judiciary Committee co-chairman and for six years as state Senate Majority Leader. He was recognized for legislative leadership on women’s reproductive and equality rights, domestic violence, gay rights, right-to-die legislation, environmental protection and gun safety measures, including co-authoring Connecticut’s first ban on assault weapons and the nation's first "red flag" gun revocation law.
In 2002, Jepsen was a candidate for governor and that year became the Democratic Party nominee for lieutenant governor. He also served as Democratic State Party chairman from 2003-2005.
Jepsen ran marathons in his youth and has pursued lifelong interests in history, hiking and the natural world, world travel and international cuisine. He celebrated his 20th birthday crossing Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and once hiked and canoed the upper tributaries of the Amazon Forest in Ecuador and travelled widely to Asia, Central and South America and to the near and Middle East. He is conversational in French, Spanish and Chinese.
Jepsen and his wife, Diana Sousa, have two sons, Christian and William.